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Beer Review: Sierra Nevada’s Nooner Session IPA

This is part 1/4 of my reviews of Sierra Nevada’s Box of Hop variety 12 pack. Starting the reviews off with the beer I was most excited to try in the pack their new session IPA, Nooner. This beers first release was in this box of hops variety pack and as of now I think it is its only scheduled release. Haven’t heard anything about this getting it’s own six pack release. I can’t believe it took Sierra this long to jump on the session IPA train honestly. This one comes in at 4.8% ABV and 40 IBU, pretty standard numbers for session IPAs.

Appearance: Pours a pretty transparent golden color, super filtered. This one had a really nice head and plenty of sticky lacing as I drank it down.

Nose: Very standard Sierra hoppy beer nose, they have the hops they like and that’s what they stick with. This one has Centennial, Chinook and Sterling. You get lots of earthy and flowery notes up front with some citrus and pine behind it. Smells somewhere between the Pale Ale and Torpedo, so pretty enjoyable.

Taste: Right off the bat the taste is super similar to Sierra’s Pale Ale, like eerily similar. It is slightly more bitter than the Pale Ale and feels a little more light and refreshing. You get some citrus and pine coming through as well making it a little more complex than the Pale Ale. I could definitely session this beer on a hot day.

Availability/Price: As always Sierra keeps the price reasonable, I think I paid about $18 for the variety 12 pack and I have seen it at a bunch of places. As far as how available this beer will be down the road, I am not entirely sure. Not really worth it to have to buy a 12 pack just to get 3 of these.

Overall: This beer definitely did not impress me nearly as much as I was hoping it would. I really wanted it to blow me out of the water but I guess I was a little hopeful on that. Sierra tends to always just make really solid beers but their new stuff is never totally mind-blowing. I think the really underwhelming thing about this beer is just how similar it felt to the Pale Ale. I would definitely session this IPA but wouldn’t pay anymore for a six pack of it than what a SN Pale Ale six pack costs.